


Morning After

by gray_autumn_sky



Series: Friends With Benefits [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 07:22:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7565272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gray_autumn_sky/pseuds/gray_autumn_sky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A follow up to Friends with Benefits--the morning before she casts the second curse, Robin and Regina wake up together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning After

When she wakes up, Robin’s still there—there and smiling softly with his arm still folded around over her hip. They’re sharing a pillow and though he’s awake, he’s made no effort to move. He’s still there beside her where she last remembers him, his fingers stroking lightly over the blanket that covers her—and for a  split second, a grin tugs at the corner of her mouth and she’s able to forget what today will bring. 

“You didn’t leave,” she murmurs. “I…didn’t expect to find you here. I thought you’d have gone back to your room.”

“I hope you’re not disappointed,” he replies in a voice just above a whisper, still making no attempt to pull away from her. “You were so upset last night…I didn’t want you to wake up alone.”

“I’m not disappointed at all,” she confesses, pressing her eyes closed and wishing she could stay this way—cocooned in a warm blanket with him—for the rest of the day and forget about everything else. It’s easy to forget when she’s with him, to pretend that the rest of the world doesn’t exist and to pretend she doesn’t have to do something horrible to rip apart the lives they’ve spent a year rebuilding only to send them back to a place she doesn’t want to be.

There’s a part of her that’s always wished they could have met under different circumstances—in a different time, in a different place—when she wasn’t so broken, when the world wasn’t working against her, and when she could have offered him more than what she can. Her breath catches when his lips press to her forehead. Her eyes open for a brief moment, she thinks to ask him what he’s doing—they’ve never quite been like this together—so soft and intimate—but when she pulls back to look at him, his blue eyes are warm and he’s looking at her in a way that makes her heart beat faster and makes her shoulders relax. It’s the way that he looks at her when her eyes are closed and her imagination invites him in and she’s able to be open and honest about the way she feels. Feeling herself losing herself to the moment, she takes a long breath and pushes away from him, sitting up and pulling the blanket tight around her chest, needing a bit of distance between them to clear her head. 

“Regina, what’s…” 

“I love you,” she hears herself say, the words leaving her lips before they’d fully registered, and immediately, she feels a sense of regret wash over her. Robin shifts on the bed and she grimaces—she hadn’t meant to say it and her cheeks flush red in embarrassment. It wasn’t supposed to be this way; this wasn’t how it was supposed to end.

But he doesn’t get up and he doesn’t leave. Instead, he shifts up to sit beside her and slides his hand across her back, reaching out and sweeping her hair to one side—and she realizes that it’s not the end—she as honest about her feelings and he didn’t withdraw or push away. Instead, he presses a few feathery kisses along the crook of her neck as his arms wrap around her. “I love you, too,” he tells her, as his lips brush against her jaw. “And I have for some time.”    

“You…do?” She asks, turning to face him, not quite believing that it’s possible that he could love something as broken as she, but wanting desperately to believe it. When he nods, a tentative smile edges her lips, “Why didn’t you…say something?”

He shrugs his shoulders as her fingers fold around his wrist. “The same reason you didn’t, I suspect—fear of rejection, not wanting to ruin a good thing, not being fully ready for more…” His voice trails off as he leans in, pecking softly at her lips. “But then last night…”

“Yeah,” she murmurs, “Then last night…”

“It was just…different and…I knew.”

 “It was,” she tells him with a nod. 

“Regina, no matter what happens today and no matter what happens tomorrow,” he says as he hugs her a little bit closer, pulling her into his arms and pressing a kiss to her temple. She closes her eyes as warm tears begin to well, and she leans into him, letting him hold her as she tries to brace herself for what lies ahead. “As hard as it’ll be, you won’t be alone.” Her head rests on his shoulder and a faint smile forms over her lips because for the first time in such a long time, she actually believes that.   


End file.
